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FLORENCE, S.C. — To stop firefighters from leaving Florence County for others, the Florence County Unified Fire District says it needs around $900,000 in new yearly funding.
Jason Thompson, the Florence County Unified Fire District Board chairman, said the district is having trouble recruiting and is losing firefighters to other counties and the private sector because of the district’s low pay.
He presented a draft recruitment and retention plan to the Florence County Committee on Justice and Public Safety on Thursday that recommended raising the starting pay to just over $41k a year, with comparable raises to other paid employees.
“What we’ve got, we need to maintain them,” Thompson told the committee. “We need to somehow or another bring some more people in.”
Currently, some fire districts within the Florence County Unified Fire District pay as low as $34,000 a year, Thompson said.
The nearly $1 million requested increase does not include pay increases for fire chiefs nor does it pay for new paid firefighter positions, something that will be needed in the future, he said.
According to the plan, fire companies in the county are staffed with two or three firefighters, lower than the national standard of four per company.
The plan also says there are 10% fewer volunteer firefighters each year, adding to the Unified Fire District’s staffing shortages.
“The fire service in Florence County will not be able to maintain the services we provide if this decline continues at this rate,” the draft plan says. “One of the first reductions would be eliminating the response to First Responder Calls.”
Up to five firefighters are needed to effectively put out fires, according to a study by the International City County Managers Association that is referred to in the plan. The study shows that three-person crews are only 38% effective at putting out fires.
“[W]e need to look into the future and this future must include adding additional paid personnel across the fire district,” the draft plan says.
As Florence County grows, its fire departments need to grow with it, the plan says. According to Thompson, the new industries moving to the county like Envision AESC’s new battery plant will expect a higher level of service than the Unified District is used to.
According to Thompson, grants could help to pay for the requested increase. The district could also take out debt it previously paid off or could dip into its reserve money, he said.
The issue with all of these funding sources, however, is that the increase will be recurring, not one-time, Thompson said. The draft retention and recruitment plan says the district will need to consider cost-of–living increases in each annual budget.
“Unfortunately, personnel costs are not going to go back down,” Thompson said. “We’ve got to get our funding source up.”
The plan suggests increasing the fire tax millage between one-half and one mill per year for the next five years to pay for the near $1 million budget increase needed this year and for future increases.
While growth may lead to naturally higher revenue without raising taxes, the plan says growth is unpredictable and a raised tax will likely be necessary.
The plan has not yet been approved by the Unified Fire District Board due to a scheduling problem, but the plan was written by the board and all the United Fire District fire chiefs.
Also at Thursday’s Florence County Committee on Justice and Public Safety, Thompson introduced the Florence County Unified Fire District Board’s draft short- and long-term goals.
Those goals, which stretch out up to seven years into the future:
- Consolidate all seven fire districts within the Unified Fire District into a single district.
- Build a staffing model that improves retention and recruitment.
- Make a plan to increase and better reward internal promotion.
- Bring all daily operations within unified standard practices.
- Improve equipment and infrastructure.
- Establish a community outreach division within the Unified Fire District.
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